1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input device and a mobile terminal including the same, and more particularly, to an input device having a plurality of light emitting units that can be turned on/off to provide one or more illumination patterns and a mobile terminal including the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A mobile terminal, including a mobile phone or a PDA, is one of many mobile electronic devices that allow a user to wirelessly transmit/receive and read/process information while the user moves about.
While users demand that mobile terminals become ever smaller, the mobile terminals still need to provide sufficient mechanical support to implement various functions within the mobile terminals and also provide an interface environment that allows users to conveniently and easily use the various functions.
Generally, a conventional mobile terminal includes a keypad unit to operate various functions or to perform inputting operations. In addition, the mobile terminal uses an illumination system such as an LED to allow marks of keys to be seen and manipulated in the dark.
For example, as seen in FIG. 1, a conventional keypad unit 1 includes multiple keys 5. Each key 5 includes a dome switch 4 mounted on a board 3 and a key button 6 that operates the dome switch 4. The key button 6 is supported by a terminal mechanism 2 so as not to be released therefrom, and a pressing protrusion 7 is formed at a lower surface of each key button 6 in order to press the dome switch 4. A certain gap is formed between the key buttons 6 and the board 3, between which an LED 8 is located.
With such a construction, a user may press each key button 6 to operate a corresponding dome switch 4 to perform an inputting operation. Light emitted from the LED 8 illuminates all the key buttons 6, informing the user about positions of the respective keys 5 and marks of the key buttons 6 so that the user can easily recognize the keys 5 in the dark.
However, the related art keypad unit 1 is disadvantages in that because the LED 8 is devised only for backlighting of the keys 6, its utilization is minimized.